Victim's brother held gun to murder suspect's head

Elaine Allegrini

Thursday

Apr 24, 2008 at 12:01 AMApr 24, 2008 at 10:44 PM

Like many of his neighbors, Francis Scolaro heard the gunshots and called 911. He grabbed a gun and ran out of his Pilgrim Street house. Next door, he found his sister, Barbara J. Tassinari, 29, lying face down in her driveway, her head riddled with bullets.

Like many of his neighbors, Francis Scolaro heard the gunshots and called 911. He grabbed a gun and ran out of his Pilgrim Street house. Next door, he found his sister, Barbara J. Tassinari, 29, lying face down in her driveway, her head riddled with bullets.

Her husband, John P. Tassinari, was nearby. Scolaro jumped on him, pointing a small silver handgun at the back of his head.

“I’m going to kill you. You killed my sister, you shot my sister,” Scolaro, 44, said around 10 p.m. Tuesday, according to a police report filed the next day in Brockton District Court, where John Tassinari was arraigned on a murder charge.

Police raced to the home after receiving multiple calls from the neighborhood, one of them from John Tassinari himself.

“My wife has been cheating on me and I just shot her dead,” Tassinari said, sounding winded, the report says.

Tassinari, a 29-year-old father of two and an acclaimed young scientist while growing up in Braintree, told police that he shot his wife more than 12 times, the police report says.

“Please come and arrest me,” Tassinari said. “I’m sorry.”

When police arrived, Tassinari allegedly showed them where to find the two guns he used to kill his wife.

Gunshots, a muzzle flash, a scream

A waitress who had been taking a cigarette break at D’Ann’s Restaurant, right behind the Tassinari home, told police that she saw a man come out of the house, heard two series of gunshots, saw a muzzle flash, then heard a woman scream.

Jack Irwin, who lives across the street from the Tassinari home, also told police that he heard gunshots. His wife, Anne, told police that the outside lights came on at the Tassinari house; she then saw the top of John Tassinari’s head through the fence and heard “three pops.”

John Tassinari disappeared, she said, only to emerge from the house’s front door a moment later.

“She observed John walk to his driveway and raise his right hand to shoulder height,” the police report states. “She again heard approximately four to five more gunshots.”

According to public records, Barbara and John Tassinari bought the property at 55 Pilgrim St., next door to her brother and his family, last year. A few months later, John Tassinari’s parents, Paul Tassinari and Dawn Goodrich, bought the house across the street at 60 Pilgrim St.

Police say there had been no prior incidents involving Barbara and John Tassinari, who lived on Ekstrom Circle, at the other end of town, for four years before moving to Pilgrim Street.

There, they were among family. Scolaro told police that he was not aware that his sister and her husband were fighting, but, “John seemed very controlling with Barbara over finances,” the police report says.

Scolaro said the couple may have had “difficulties” and that Tassinari spent a night at his brother’s house in New York last week, the report states.

Scolaro said his sister was “always home” and that he was not aware of her having any affairs, the report says.

Scolaro’s wife, Robin, 42, said Barbara Tassinari came over to her house for tea earlier Tuesday. During the visit, Robin Scolaro said her sister-in-law told her that John Tassinari had been drinking and “giving her a hard time,” the report says.

About 15 minutes after Barbara Tassinari arrived at the Scolaro home, John Tassinari phoned and asked his wife to come home.

She told police that, through her window, she saw her husband run toward his sister’s house and confront John Tassinari, yelling, “Why? Why did you do it?”

Police said Wednesday that Tassinari was not drunk Tuesday night.

Tassinari directed police to guns allegedly used in the shooting, one in the back yard and one in the driveway, the police report states.

Police reported finding a .45-caliber Glock about five feet from Barbara Tassinari’s body. A second gun, described similarly, was behind a locked chain-link fence about six to 10 feet from the body, police said. Six to 10 shell casings were on the ground near each of the guns, according to the report.

The couple’s two cars were parked in the driveway, and one of them, a black Infiniti, had several bullet holes in the windshield and hood, police said.

Suspect’s lawyer: ‘A horrific tragedy’

On Wednesday, John Tassinari, tall and with a shaved head, was led out of the Abington police headquarters and taken to a waiting cruiser for the ride to Brockton District Court. He was wearing the same black shorts and white T-shirt that witnesses said he had on Tuesday night.

In court, he stood behind a glass wall for his arraignment on a single count of murder.

Six members of Barbara Tassinari’s family sat in the courtroom’s front row as a not-guilty plea was entered for the defendant. Family members declined to comment.

Tassinari was held without bail pending a May 14 probable-cause hearing.

His attorney, William Sullivan of Quincy, said, “This is a horrific tragedy for everybody.”

Members of John Tassinari’s family were not in court, but Sullivan said the family is supportive.